octa-
a combining form occurring in loanwords from Greek and Latin, where it meant “eight” (octagon; octastyle), on this model, used in the formation of compound words, and in chemical terms specialized to mean “having eight atoms” (octavalent).
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Nearby words
- ocs,
- oct,
- oct-,
- oct.,
- octa,
- octachord,
- octad,
- octadecanoic acid,
- octagon,
- octagon house
Origin of octa-
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
octa-
combining form
a variant of octo-
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
octa-
before vowels oct-, word-forming element meaning "eight," from Greek okta-, okt-, from PIE *okto(u) "eight" (see eight). The variant form octo- often appears in words taken from Latin, but the Greek form is said to be the more common in English.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper